US EPA

ORD researchers recently developed a tool, the Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS) Scoping Tool (FST), to guide decision makers toward understanding what ES are of greatest shared interest among stakeholder groups and what are the associated environmental attributes by which stakeholders obtain benefits. This technical report documents the application of FST to inform Tillamook Estuaries Partnership (TEP) restoration managers about the priority ES and environmental attributes of 15 stakeholder groups regarding proposed restoration of tidal wetlands on Tillamook River, Oregon. There are four steps to an analysis using FST: 1.articulating the relative influence of stakeholder prioritization decision criteria for decision makers, 2.assessing relative stakeholder prioritization based on those decision criteria, 3.building beneficiary profiles for each stakeholder group, and 4.finding the shared interests in environmental attributes based on what beneficiaries need or care for. The FST analysis revealed that the restored Tillamook River wetland site could provide the most benefit if the restoration plan focused on flooding concerns, which would benefit multiple beneficiaries including some of the most influential ones (e.g., transporters of people and goods and residential/municipal/government property owners). Additionally, restoration focused on improving the ecological condition of the site would benefit other high-ranking beneficiaries, including people who care about nature, students and educators, and researchers. The third priority environmental attribute was edible fauna (e.g., fish, game animals) which are of interest to recreational anglers and hunters and people who care about nature. These results may be useful to TEP restoration managers and restoration teams in several ways, including: focusing discussions with stakeholders on priority ES and environmental attributes to include in the restoration goals; developing a restoration effectiveness monitoring and assessment plan that includes metrics of the priority ES and environmental attributes; and/or for building a stakeholder-focused communication strategy to report on progress made toward production of priority ES at the site. 

EPA scientists worked with Tillamook Estuaries Partnership (TEP) restoration managers to apply the FST for a tidal wetlands restoration site on the Tillamook River, to explore how the tool can be used as a method to identify and prioritize the benefits that stakeholders want from restoration, and to utilize ES concepts in early stages of restoration planning practices to better connect restoration goals to community values. The FST provides a transparent and replicable approach to reconciling different priorities into a final set of shared goals that can inform the restoration project goal-setting, design, and monitoring. This work can additionally be used by TEP managers to inform conversations with stakeholders when reporting throughout different phases of restoration. While data input into FST and the results of the analysis are site-specific, the methodology of the FST is transferrable to other ecosystems in which any number of stakeholder and their interests need to be considered in a decision-making context.

Framing ecological restoration and monitoring goals from a human benefits perspective (i.e., ecosystem services; ES) can help inform restoration planners and surrounding communities about the direct human benefits they may obtain from a specific restoration project. The goal of this report is to demonstrate how an online tool (i.e., Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS) Scoping Tool; FST) can inform restoration managers which ES are of greatest shared interest among stakeholders, and to suggest how that information may be used in restoration goal development, creating monitoring and assessment plans, and a communications strategy.

HERNANDEZ, C., L. M. SHARPE, C. JACKSON, AND T. H. DEWITT. Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Scoping Tool: Analysis of Beneficiaries and Environmental Attributes for the Tillamook River Wetlands. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-22/045, 2022.